Silence
by SeraSearaSpin
Summary: (Post-STR ending). He thought he'd be happy to have her out of his life. He was never more wrong. Rated T, just in case.
1. 1

**So it's ten minutes past midnight right now and I don't want to go to sleep because I'm a moron and I must just love being exhausted in school so have some random KagePro feels because they're bubbling out of my ears.**

**Set after Summertime Record. Yes, I purposely didn't refer to our main character by name. There will be a second chapter, never fear. **

**I WANT TO MEET JIN SO VERY VERY BADLY AND GIVE HIM A HUGE HUG**

**Review! :D**

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He hated her, _hated_ her. A bundle of noise and irritation and countless deleted songs, being woken up in the middle of the night by a whooping air-raid siren and her annoying voice crooning, "Oh, Master, wake up, did you know that in eight hours, a new bookstore opens? Wow, you should go there, Master! Maybe you can pick up some new books to add to that _disreputable_ collection of yours that you hide from your mother, and only god knows how shocked she is by that folder of yours I posted yesterday~"

Too many nights spent screeching, "Shut up, Ene, I'm trying to sleep, can you just shut up and stop bothering me?"

And the familiar laughter subsiding into silence, and he'd fold the pillow back over his head and go to sleep, only to be woken up again by another burst of sound and static.

He wasn't even going to count how many times he'd deleted her, only for the irritating little cyber-girl to pop back up just as soon as he returned to the internet.

She was the bane of his existence, needling him, blatantly shooting holes in his reputation, and making his life hell.

However, it was her that caused his life to change, for him to go outside, put on his madder red jersey, and do something with his life instead of finally finding solace at the end of the blades of scissors. Throughout his time with the Mekakushi Dan, she was there, being her same old self, until he truly wanted to kill her.

Yet now that _something_ had happened and she was out of his phone and into a body he recognized as Takane, not Ene, his life was quiet, the rills smoothed back to normal. No disturbances. No middle-of-the-night alarms. No more of the screeching, high-pitched laughter he hated so much.

And that was what kept him up at night.

The utter silence of the world.

Even now, he lay in his bed, covers pulled to his chin, and eyes wide open, just waiting, anticipating that shrill peal of her maddening laughter, _now, or NOW-_

But his room remained silent as the grave.

He folded the pillow over his head in the familiar motion and pretended he had heard a voice, maybe asking if he'd like to buy this cute swimsuit to go to the beach, or maybe this suntan lotion, and used that to lull himself to sleep.

It seemed no sooner had he finally succumbed to dreams than his phone exploded in sound.

He bolted upright, hope swelling in his heart, and shouted, "Ene, dammit, I'm trying to sleep!"

No reply. The screen on his phone said, "7:00 - Remember to pick up soda from the store today..."

He threw the phone down.

_Lonely, that's what I am. Lonely. One of my closest friends moved away, so I'm lonely. Lonely. Lonely._

He repeated the word in his mind, attached it to himself, savored it like a rare treat. After Ayano...left, he had repeatedly told himself _I'm not lonely, lonely is not me. _Now, he liked to think he'd grown since then to acknowledge his loneliness. Or maybe he was just more lonely.

Whatever the case, it would tear him apart to be so lonely.


	2. 2

**Here we are with part two. And now it's a quarter to one and I have to get up for school in four hours and fifteen minutes...anyway, you're not here to read me rambling along, you're here to read the next chapter. **

**Oh, and a last note? This was originally supposed to be two chapters, but I like it when my chapters are near the same length, so prepare for the third chapter soon.**

**Review! :D**

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He didn't know what to do about this. He didn't know Takane's number; it's not as if in their past times they'd been best friends. Hell, they hadn't even gotten along ever since that day where he'd beaten her at the weirdly-made shooting game at the school fair.

And she had been Takane, and then into Ene by a process even she admitted she didn't understand. And back out again in the same method.

And Kuroha, poised to kill them all, had undergone a magical transformation, and he now resembled that other boy, the one that used to have the heart sickness. Ah..._Haruka._ He'd thought Takane would never stop saying Haruka's name, and never let the silver-haired boy go.

He felt a pang of jealousy directed towards his former friend. Now Takane was probably talking to him, to the ex-Konoha, the boy android who'd been his second-best friend. Both his close friends, free from their constraints, had flown away on new-furled wings and left him counting shadows in the silence they left behind.

Tears filled his eyes, to his horror. It just wasn't _fair. _Here they were, at their happy ending, and he had no one. They'd agreed to see each other a final time, and then divide themselves away, and they'd done so, and they were gone. The apartment, when he'd gone to retrieve his phone charger - the apartment was empty and devoid of all the things that'd been lying around. Not even scraps of Mary's paper flowers had remained.

It was like no one lived there, no one had _ever_ lived there, and he'd taken a long moment just to stand in the center of the room and inhale, indulging in the scent that'd become the one he'd associated with home. Already, it was tainted by the dry smell of dust.

That had been yesterday.

And now he was all alone in his house. Momo had her idol duties, and his mom had left for work. Not even a month ago, he would've curled up in his chair in front of his computer and tolerated the inane drivel stemming from the girl on the computer, lights out, shades drawn.

With the sunlight streaming in, his room looked open and airy, the piles of garbage he'd yet to clean up contained to their places. Nothing like the summer sun to make a place seem more hospitable.

However, summer was almost over. Yesterday had brought a crisp autumn chill, and it felt finally the right temperature to wear his red jersey.

The arrival of fall made him want to cry. The beautiful red leaves, the cool white clouds scudding across the cerulean sky, the frisky little breeze playing up the street. He'd trade it all for even another hour of the sweltering summer sun, the wavering - but now harmless - heat haze, and most of all, the alleviation of the loneliness.

The memory of sitting on the curb with the rest, licking fresh-bought treats, came back with force like a gunshot. The rough feel of the curb, the sweet and sour flavor of cola-flavored ice, the sticky sensation of melted popsicle drying on his cheeks and hands. Ene's laughter, shrilling, "Ah, Master, you look like a raggedy vagabond!" and his typical reply; "Shut up, Ene." The flashback momentarily felt more realistic than the bed he sat on, and his tears from earlier overflowed, streaming down his face.

He collapsed inwards on himself with a sob.

Around him, the house reverberated with the silence.


	3. 3

**Good thing there's no school tomorrow. Or should I say 'today' at this point...and I guess this chapter exceeds the word limit I set for myself, but eh. Final chapter! *final boss music plays***

**Review! :D**

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The ripples of his sob came back to him in little wavelets, reminding himself the house - and his life, now that they'd all split - was heartbreakingly, horribly empty.

Wiping his eyes, he picked up his phone again, studying his reflection.

_Yep. That's me. Ex-hikiNEET. Still adapting to society. Likes the color red. _

_Lonely._

He was on the verge of throwing the phone across the room again, when, remarkably, it rang.

He stared at it for a full five seconds, analyzing the peppy yet strange 64-bit tune Ene must've changed it to at some point, the vibration of it on his hand, the light glowing around the black space of words.

Then he scrabbled to answer it, bringing it up to his ear all in a rush. "Yes? Who is it?"

A telemarketer droned in his ear, and the hope drained out of him. He ended the call with a swift brush of the button, and absently scrolled through his contacts. Maybe someone would be online, and he could chat with them to alleviate this all-consuming loneliness. It was almost enough to make him look at the scissors, lying enticingly on the windowsill.

He jerked his gaze away with effort and stared at the words on the phone without seeing them. _Why am I always the one left behind in the silence? Why is it I who ends up alone?_

He squeezed the fist holding the phone, and his fingers pushed the 'call' button for the contact he'd accidentally selected. He moved to hang it up, except it was picked up immediately by someone on the other end. "Hello?"

His throat clenched at the voice. It was Konoha, but not-Konoha, new and improved Haruka. By some sort of magical coincidence, he'd called Konoha - the one person that he still had a line to, though even he didn't know it.

"Hello?" repeated Haruka on the other side. "Who is it?" called a familiar irritated voice in the background, muffled.

"Ene!" he said, almost without thinking about it. "Can we talk, Ene?"

"Give me that," he heard, though suppressed. "What do you want, Ma - Shintaro? And it's Takane, not Ene, if you've forgotten."

The voice he hated so much, complaining at him, made his spirits rise. Though, now, his infamous skill for mangling the language he'd been taught came into play. "I-I was lon-, er, that is, I kind of m-, ah..."

He could almost hear her rolling her eyes. "Do you even speak this language? I've never had actual proof. And what are you wasting my time for?"

He felt his old fury rising. It was glorious. "Can I come over?"

"Why? Did you spill soda on your keyboard again and want to use ours?"

"I'm just...lonely." There. He'd admitted it, and it'd come out pathetic, like a little boy had taken his place. He closed his eyes, waiting for Takane to make fun of him.

There was another stretch of silence, but this one felt more benign since he knew someone was there., listening.

"I know how you feel," said Takane in the voice she usually reserved for those times when she really _was_ sorry. "It's...it's different. To be back. I kept waking up in the middle of the night, ready to put on another show, and I'm already standing before I remember I have legs, and I'm not a mass of pixels anymore. I might actually miss it." Her voice turned wry.

"So," he said, hardly daring to hope, "that's a yes?"

"Well if you're gonna come, you should come." Again with the verbal eye roll.

"Where are you at?" He was already on his feet, shoving one arm through the red jersey that was so familiar to him. Already, he felt more like a person than an empty doll.

"We're at the house Konoha stayed in when he lived with Hibiya and Hiyori." Takane promptly rattled off the address, and he jotted it onto his hand, then scribbled a note to his mother and Momo, letting them know where he'd be at. "Show up soon!" said Haruka's cheerful voice on the other end. "We'll wait for you before lunch!" And to Haruka, lunch was one of life's Great Things, so for him to put it off was quite a show of affection. "Yeah, okay, bye," said Takane, but he knew her well enough to know that that tone of voice meant she was smiling.

Shintaro smiled to himself. _Did __I really think I was the one that ended up alone? Ha, how silly._

As he closed the front door behind him, he let the sunlight warm his features. Outside, the street bustled with sounds and colors, chasing away the silence.


End file.
